Machines for automatically sorting flat articles, such as mail, into one of an array of selected bins or compartments, are known. Typically, such sorting machines have a feeding station, including an intake drive member such as a rubber-covered wheel or belt, sensing and detecting equipment for determining the appropriate output compartment for the article to be sorted, diverting gates or other mechanisms and an array of output compartments or bins for the sorted articles. An example of an advanced sorting machine is the DBSCII sorting device, available from ElectroCom Automation, L.P., Arlington, Tex.
Conventionally, to feed articles into the sorting machine, an operator manually grabs a bundle of mail to be sorted and manually shakes or jostles the mail to generally align the bottom edges, making a stack, typically horizontal. The operator then places the stack of mail against the feed member of the sorting machine, which then feeds the articles into the sorting machine, one at a time, to be sorted.
At the output of the sorter, the sorted articles are routed to the appropriate compartment for each of the sorted articles and stacked. The feeding and sorting of articles continues until one or more of the receiving compartments becomes sufficiently full of a stack of sorted mail. At this point, an operator will manually remove a stack of the sorted articles from the compartment and place the articles into a box for either later reprocessing through the sorting machine, transferring to another sorting machine for further sorting or transporting to a delivery person, such as a mail carrier, for ultimate delivery to the intended location, if all sorting is completed.
Although automatic sorting machines have greatly speeded and improved the prior process of manual sorting, manual attention is still required to feed the flat articles into the sorting machine and to retrieve the sorted articles from the output of the sorting machine. The need for such manual feeding and sweeping is undesirable for ergonomic reasons, because of the bending and reaching required. Furthermore, the need for such manual handling of the mail tends to limit the maximum benefits of automation that can be gained from the sorting machine.